The Expanding Universe
Here is the text of a letter I wrote to my old and dear friend S tonight:
S,
I'm reading this great book right now that made me think about you.
Old people remember exactly where they were when Pearl Harbor happened.
Young people remember exactly where they were when 9/11 happened.
I remember exactly where I was when I found out how the universe was going to end... and I was with you.
It was 1997 and I was living in the house on Greeley with D and C. You were over to visit. We were sitting in the living room, with that yellow and blue paint on the walls and the wood front door, and the couches at odd angles, one of them a most horrible color of orange and brown plaid, and the dining table in the next room made of cinder blocks and plywood.
That afternoon, I read a stunning article in the newspaper that forever changed our views of ourselves and our world, and apparently sparked a scientific revolution.
I can still remember the stunned look on your face, and that you had to sit down, when I told you the news. Although I can't remember whether you sat on the couch, or simply sank to the floor.
Although D couldn't grasp what the big deal was, we both agreed that "this changes everything".
The article was about how scientists, by studying a certain type of supernovae, had finally found solid evidence that once and for all solved the great debate over whether there was enough mass in the universe to keep it from expanding forever endlessly.
Until then, we both believed the universe was a cycle rather than a line... and that this was the ideal state of being. Progress was a myth. Nature was cyclical. Ancient mythologies and postmodern theories both based themselves on this idea. The universe would eventually stop expanding, and start contract, eventually ending in a big crunch. Perhaps it would repeat the whole process over and over again in an endless cycle, being born anew each time like a Phoenix, perhaps each time with radically different laws of physics. It was elegant and comforting and without beginning or end.
Since the dawn of man, such eternal questions as the fate of the universe were once the sole realm of philosophers and theologians, but by 1997, humanity had suddenly and unexpectedly reached the point where science could actually provide a definitive answer.
And our comforting ideas were wrong.
"Perlmutter, Schmidt, and their colleagues revealed for the first time that the force of gravity was losing the battle, and the universe was expanding unabated. Most scientists now believe the expansion of the universe will continue forever."
"Galaxies fly away from one another, dimming and reddening over time, disappearing from the skies. Stars burn out and die, becoming empty shells of cold, dead matter. The stars flicker out one by one. The universe gets cooler and cooler over time, and the last bits of matter might even disintegrate, decaying into energy and giving brief bursts of light to the cold soup of lifeless radiation that suffuses the universe. Finally, there is nothing left except for a frigid bath of cold light. Our destiny is a death by ice."
"It was a stunning discovery. For the first time in history, scientists had wrested the end of the universe from the hands of mythology and speculation and placed it firmly within the grasp of human knowledge. This will be one of the most enduring victories of cosmology."
This is from the new book "Alpha and Omega: The Search for the Beginning and End of the Universe" by Charles Seife, which I am reading right now.
The book is about the major scientific revolution that has happened over the last few years, and is still continuing today, because of that discovery in 1997.
It's a excellent, fascinating read, and as I sit here, I also can't help thinking of the personal journeys of discovery you and I have made since that day long ago in Houston, Texas.
Thinking about you, and wishing you all the best in life.
Happy Holidays.
Love,
E
S,
I'm reading this great book right now that made me think about you.
Old people remember exactly where they were when Pearl Harbor happened.
Young people remember exactly where they were when 9/11 happened.
I remember exactly where I was when I found out how the universe was going to end... and I was with you.
It was 1997 and I was living in the house on Greeley with D and C. You were over to visit. We were sitting in the living room, with that yellow and blue paint on the walls and the wood front door, and the couches at odd angles, one of them a most horrible color of orange and brown plaid, and the dining table in the next room made of cinder blocks and plywood.
That afternoon, I read a stunning article in the newspaper that forever changed our views of ourselves and our world, and apparently sparked a scientific revolution.
I can still remember the stunned look on your face, and that you had to sit down, when I told you the news. Although I can't remember whether you sat on the couch, or simply sank to the floor.
Although D couldn't grasp what the big deal was, we both agreed that "this changes everything".
The article was about how scientists, by studying a certain type of supernovae, had finally found solid evidence that once and for all solved the great debate over whether there was enough mass in the universe to keep it from expanding forever endlessly.
Until then, we both believed the universe was a cycle rather than a line... and that this was the ideal state of being. Progress was a myth. Nature was cyclical. Ancient mythologies and postmodern theories both based themselves on this idea. The universe would eventually stop expanding, and start contract, eventually ending in a big crunch. Perhaps it would repeat the whole process over and over again in an endless cycle, being born anew each time like a Phoenix, perhaps each time with radically different laws of physics. It was elegant and comforting and without beginning or end.
Since the dawn of man, such eternal questions as the fate of the universe were once the sole realm of philosophers and theologians, but by 1997, humanity had suddenly and unexpectedly reached the point where science could actually provide a definitive answer.
And our comforting ideas were wrong.
"Perlmutter, Schmidt, and their colleagues revealed for the first time that the force of gravity was losing the battle, and the universe was expanding unabated. Most scientists now believe the expansion of the universe will continue forever."
"Galaxies fly away from one another, dimming and reddening over time, disappearing from the skies. Stars burn out and die, becoming empty shells of cold, dead matter. The stars flicker out one by one. The universe gets cooler and cooler over time, and the last bits of matter might even disintegrate, decaying into energy and giving brief bursts of light to the cold soup of lifeless radiation that suffuses the universe. Finally, there is nothing left except for a frigid bath of cold light. Our destiny is a death by ice."
"It was a stunning discovery. For the first time in history, scientists had wrested the end of the universe from the hands of mythology and speculation and placed it firmly within the grasp of human knowledge. This will be one of the most enduring victories of cosmology."
This is from the new book "Alpha and Omega: The Search for the Beginning and End of the Universe" by Charles Seife, which I am reading right now.
The book is about the major scientific revolution that has happened over the last few years, and is still continuing today, because of that discovery in 1997.
It's a excellent, fascinating read, and as I sit here, I also can't help thinking of the personal journeys of discovery you and I have made since that day long ago in Houston, Texas.
Thinking about you, and wishing you all the best in life.
Happy Holidays.
Love,
E
posted by E at 11:01 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home